SAINT FEBRONIA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR
Psalter I | GREEN
She was a nun at Nisibis (modern-day Nusaybin, Turkey). She suffered persecution under Diocletian, who offered her freedom if she renounced her faith and married his nephew, Lysimachus, who had been leaning towards conversion to Christianity. Febronia refused and was tortured, suffered mutilation and death. Lysimachus, witnessing her suffering, converted.
Entrance Antiphon: Ps 94: 6-7
O come, let us worship God and bow low before the God who made us, for he is the Lord our God.
Collect
Keep your family safe, O Lord, with unfailing care, that, relying solely on the hope of heavenly grace, they may be defended always by your protection. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
First reading: 1 Kings 11:4-13
When Solomon was old his wives had turned his heart to strange gods, and his heart was not entirely with the Lord, his God, as the heart of his father David had been. By adoring Astarte, the goddess of the Sidonians, and Milcom, the idol of the Ammonites, Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord; he did not follow him unreservedly as his father David had done. Solomon then built a high place to Chemosh, the idol of Moab, and to Molech, the idol of the Ammonites, on the hill opposite Jerusalem. He did the same for all his foreign wives who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. The Lord, therefore, became angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice (for though the Lord had forbidden him this very act of following strange gods, Solomon had not obeyed him). So the Lord said to Solomon: “Since this is what you want, and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes which I enjoined on you, I will deprive you of the kingdom and give it to your servant. I will not do this during your lifetime, however, for the sake of your father David; it is your son whom I will deprive. Nor will I take away the whole kingdom. I will leave your son one tribe for the sake of my servant David and of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.”
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 106:3-4, 35-36, 37 and 40
R/ Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.
- Blessed are they who observe what is right, who do always what is just. Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people; visit us with your saving help.
- But they mingled with the nations and learned their works. They served their idols, which became a snare for them.
- They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons. And the Lord grew angry with his people, and abhorred his inheritance.
Gospel Acclamation: James 1:21bc
Alleluia, alleluia. Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you and is able to save your souls. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel: Mark 7:24-30
Jesus went to the district of Tyre. He entered a house and wanted no one to know about it, but he could not escape notice. Soon a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him. She came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, “Let the children be fed first. For it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” She replied and said to him, “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.” Then he said to her, “For saying this, you may go. The demon has gone out of your daughter.” When the woman went home, she found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.
Prayer over the Offerings
O Lord, our God, who once established these created things to sustain us in our frailty, grant, we pray, that they may become for us now the Sacrament of eternal life. Through Christ our Lord.
Communion Antiphon: Cf. Ps 106: 8-9
Let them thank the Lord for his mercy, his wonders for the children of men, for he satisfies the thirsty soul, and the hungry he fills with good things.
Prayer after Communion
O God, who have willed that we be partakers in the one Bread and the one Chalice, grant us, we pray, so to live that, made one in Christ, we may joyfully bear fruit for the salvation of the world. Through Christ our Lord.
Meditation
“Blessed are they who observe what is right.” God always gives us the choice to either follow him or turn away from him, and our choice comes with consequences. If we choose to serve him then he will be with us and bless us; but if we choose to reject him, then he abandons us and we meet with disaster. As long as King Solomon obeyed God, God blessed him; he was the wisest, richest and most powerful king of his time. But when he abandoned God and gave in to idolatry, he lost God’s blessing. Human life is a series of choices, and ultimately, the choice we have to make every day is between good and evil. The story of Solomon teaches us that the choice of good over evil is not made once and for all; it is a choice that we have to renew every day in order to remain on the right path. The pagan woman in the Gospel chose to come to Jesus because she had in faith in his ability to heal her daughter. Let us choose Jesus like her, and more importantly, let us remain with Jesus, not just sometimes, but throughout our lives.